Nick Watney shot a third-round 66 and takes a three-shot lead into the final round of the US PGA Championship. Photograph: Matt Sullivan/Reuters

Behold the new power generation of golf, who yesterday flexed the muscles and opened their shoulders at Whistling Straits to set up an enticing final day of the US PGA Championship.

On a day of beautiful conditions and even better golf, Nick Watney, a pupil of the old master Butch Harmon, led the youthful charge, ripping apart a golf course that had been billed as one of the toughest on the major championship circuit. A third-round 66 gave the lie to that reputation, and it also gave the young American a three-shot advantage over the field on 13 under par for the week.

It was a stunning effort from Watney, although his was not the only eye-catching performance of the day. China's Wenchong Liang signed for a course record 64, eight under par, and a place inside the top five, while Watney's countryman Dustin Johnson, another muscular protégé of Harmon's, signed for a five-under-par 67.

Rory McIlroy matched Johnson's score and will begin today's final round in pursuit of the leader – a position that may suit the young Ulsterman, whose past performances suggest he is better as the man doing the chasing rather than the man being chased. Remember the final round 62 which won him the Quail Hollow Championship earlier this year? Rest assured, it will be at the forefront of McIlroy's mind on the first tee today.

The European challenge in a week that has carried a distinctly star-spangled hue was also represented by Martin Kaymer, who finished the day on nine under par, one shot behind McIlroy – good news at least for the Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie on a day when all the news threatened to be bad.

So much for the walkover in Wales – an expectation of an easy European victory at the Ryder Cup has looked more unrealistic with every passing day here and seemed utterly daft during yesterday's third round.

For one thing, the mid-afternoon leaderboard had a distinctly American feel, with the likes of Dustin Johnson, Jim Furyk and Matt Kuchar to the fore in the chase to catch Watney, who at one point in the day opened up a four-shot lead.

Europe was represented by McIlroy and Kaymer, both of whom played brilliantly on a day of calm conditions and low scoring to move near the top of the leaderboard, and Simon Dyson – although, barring a victory today, he is unlikely to make the trip to Wales.

But there ended the heartening news for the home captain Montgomerie. Did we really expect anything else? Probably not after the week Montgomerie has had. Still, it is one thing to be targeted by the prurient hordes in matters that have nothing to do with golf and quite another to be put in a difficult position by the golfers who were expected to be in the vanguard of one last Ryder Cup triumph for the old warhorse.

Two tournaments remain in the qualification process for the European team, but as the captain acknowledged – or at least was forced to accept by some of the so-called leading players who are not yet on the team – the US PGA Championship represented the crucial stage in the selection process.

"I look forward to selecting a very, very strong team within the next fortnight,'' Montgomerie said on Friday night. No doubt he will, but the chances are it won't the team he might have considered to be his strongest – the performances of Luke Donald, Justin Rose and Padraig Harrington, all three of whom missed the cut here, have seen to that.

Likewise, the determination of all three to play in the FedEx Cup play-offs in the States rather than the Johnny Walker Championship at Gleneagles, the final event in the qualification process for the team, has hardly helped, even if Montgomerie refused to acknowledge as much. "I have spoken to everyone I needed to speak to about their schedules before and including Gleneagles and understand their commitments over here. I am fine with everything,'' he said. He could hardly say anything else but what must he have been thinking after Harrington double-bogeyed his final hole of the delayed second round early yesterday morning to miss the cut.

It was a poor effort by the Irishman, and it was matched by his apparent insouciance at the prospect of missing out on Celtic Manor. "At the end of the day, nobody who doesn't qualify deserves automatically to be picked. I have worked hard, tried hard and if I get picked I want to be ready to play and if it doesn't happen I will be disappointed,'' he said.

"I hope Monty is a guy who looks through things and sees stats. Sixteen top 10s in the last year is going to be a lot of comfort. I am sure he needs some experience in that team and some older guys. I have done everything I can now and there is nothing more I can do. My majors have been poor this year but everything else has been good,'' he said.

"There is nothing more I can do" Really? Well, Harrington could make the trip to Scotland, inconvenient though it might be. The same suggestion could be made to Rose, Donald and, for that matter, Paul Casey, who for the time being remains outside the nine automatic places on the 12-man European team.

Things could yet break the right way for the European captain both today and in the coming fortnight, but given his recent luck the chances are they will not. Indeed, the wrong combination of results could leave Harrington, Casey, Rose and Donald competing for the three wildcard picks.

Who to choose? Montgomerie will not be short for advice but, for what it is worth, Donald's efforts earlier in the year – not least his decision to play in the Wales Open while most of the leading contenders for the team played in the States – should surely count for something.

Of course, the European captain does not have the monopoly on vexation. His counterpart Corey Pavin has long been viewed as the man facing the more difficult selection problem – where on earth was he going to find 12 players capable of matching a strong European team? The efforts of Furyk , Johnson and Watney yesterday provided an answer, and so, too, did the performance of Tiger Woods.

"He is under consideration,'' Pavin said earlier in the week when asked if the world No1 was likely to get one of his four wildcard picks should he require one – an obfuscation that seemed silly at the time and seemed even sillier after Woods' efforts this week. Woods remains a long way short of his best form and his prospects of victory disappeared with a flawed level-par round of 72 which left him in 39th place. But he has been a different man from the morose and diffident figure who finished second from last at Firestone last weekend. "I am thinking about tomorrow," he said after his round. No doubt he is. And the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after....